Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-01-19
BIG GAME IN ALASKA.
killing Two Alaskan Grizzlies-Bear
Meat Gamy in Flayor-Salmon.


Meat Gamy in Flavor-Salmon.
Arriving at the camp on Icy bay we
| found things generally about as we had
expected. 1t had rained, however, a
great deal at this camp in the way of
constant light showers, although we had
not had single shower even ON the trip
inland, the equivalent being fogs and
clouds in the upper strata of the atmos-
phere. Dalton, the keeper of the camp
during our absence, had succeeded in
killing two Alaskan grizzly bears, or
brown bears, 1 think they are more
properly called (being the northern va
riety of the cinnamon bear, so called,
of the Rocky mountains), the two being
a mother and her cub. He had also
wounded another, huge fellow, which
managed to escape into the timber,
where Dalton had too mnch good bear
sense to follow it. He believed, how
ever, that he had fatally wounded it, but
it being too dark in the deep, gloomy for
est to go in and examine the wounds care
fully to ascertain whether they were
fatal Or not, the investigation was not
prosecuted further. The larger of the
two grizzly bears he killed was huge
beast, and must have been some eight
ments were taken, the skin being worth
less as a robe at that season Of the
year, and consequently was thrown
away before our return. The meat of
the mother was, to put it mildly. very
gamy in flavor, and as Dalton was
alone, and the bear cub meat was ever so
much better, the former was only ''sam
pied, - with the conclusion to let it alone.
If no lot
turn, and it certainly was not bad eating
at least after our long abstinence from
fresh meat.
The bear at this season lives in whole
or in part on salmon and seal, and as the
latter lives on fish too, Mr.. and Mrs. Bruin
directly and indirectly live great deal
on the product of the sea and rivers, with
q consequent effect of not adding to the
flavor of their meat as judged from the
standpoint of the average human palate.
The Alaskan brown bear, however, in
living on seals will not, as far as 1 can
ascertain, partake of the putrid remains
of that animal, as does the polar bear to
my certain knowledge, and therefore
never has the wild, racy originality in
favor of the latter, which has occasioned
so much comment among Arctic travel
ers as to the palatability of polar bear
meat, and which really depends on
whether they have caught the northern
bear favored in this way Or not. The
brown bear catches it's seal on the beach,
but never above high tide; and if the en-
tire phOcidian is not devOured at one
meal he is washed away by the tide on
the next or SO covered with sand as to
be buried out of sight. The polar bear,
on the contrary, catches its seal on the
ice, often Staying numbers at time, if
they are thick, and leaving their bodies
to mellow in the sun for its depraved
appetite.
l have also said that the Alaskan
brown bear lives to no small extent on
salmon, which they find ascending the
rivers to spawn in the spring and sum-
mer, and as many of these fish die in
their ascent and are thrown upon the
banks of the river to rot and decay, this
does not tend to improve the meat of the
bear any more than did the seal. These
salmon swarm in some of the Alaskan
rivers, and canoe going up or down
some Of the smaller shallow streams have
a ripping semicircle in front of them
about twenty or thirty feet distant that
looks like a small rapid in the course of
the stream, being a curve Of salmon just
below the waters surface trying to escape
from the coming boat.-Lieut. Schwatka
in New York Times